The invention relates to a method for predicting the consumption of a motor vehicle, which is provided with at least one drive motor and one drivetrain, a motor vehicle and a computer program.
Motor vehicles can use different types of energy to cover a distance with the aid of drive motors. For example, it is known that there are motor vehicles that use only an internal combustion engine as a drive motor which generates energy by burning fuel in a fuel tank. Also known are hybrid vehicles, which are equipped in addition to an internal combustion engine also with an electromotor that is used as a another drive motor, and which can obtain the energy necessary for its operation from its battery. Also so called plug-in hybrids have already become known as hybrid motor vehicles, in which the battery of the electromotor can be charged through a compatible charging device at a corresponding charging station, or through a general power-supplying network.
It is desirable for a number of different reasons if it can be predicted when the route to be traveled is known in advance, for example from a navigation system, how high the consumption of the fuel or of the electrical energy of the motor vehicle will be. Such a consideration is relevant for instance when planning an overall operating strategy of a plug-in hybrid motor vehicle for a route that is known in advance, wherein the objective is usually to use all of the electric energy up to the end of the route in order to maximize the portion of the route that is powered electrically and thus also to maximize the consumption savings. However, this should be done in a way that makes sense from an economical and ecological viewpoint, since the total consumption of the hybrid drivetrain should be minimized. As an example, it is not an advantage when the vehicle is driven electrically on longer country roads of the route and then it must use the combustion engine in the subsequent city segment because the charge status of the battery is now too low. However, if the use of electric energy is in principle prohibited on segment of the route with country roads, there is the danger that too much electric energy will be left unused at the end of the trip in the battery.
In the context of determining an overall operating strategy for a route that is known in advance, the different operating modes of the hybrid drive system are taken into account for an optimization of the manner in which they are used, in particular when they are differentiated for different parts of the route. In order to determine the consumption for different operating strategies, the route data describing the routes that are known in advance are available, such as for example data indicating how the route is put together from the viewpoints of the city traffic, in particular in terms of environmental zones, country roads, highways and the like. It is known that already know portions of routes can be used in order to provide expected consumption, for example with the average consumption values indicated the last time for highway sections with no speed limit and the like. This means that that electric motor and the combustion engine motor consumptions are analyzed and averaged during the trip in order to make it possible to arrive at estimates of the consumption available for an evaluation of certain parts of a route that is known in advance.
Similar procedures are also known to be used when the consumption needs to be estimated for example for a calculation of the remaining range.
As was already mentioned, certain characteristics of the route sections are used to apply historical consumption values to the same characteristics of sections of the road already traveled. For example, a distinction can be made between traffic in the city, and on country roads and highways. At the same time, although already traveled sections of the route that have the same selected characteristics can be clearly differentiated from portions of a known route that have not been traveled yet, a clear residual inaccuracy will still remain for the determination of consumption. The result is that depending on the use, this can lead for example to operating strategies that are not optimal and/or provide inaccurate remaining ranges of the motor vehicle.